New Year's resolution lessons from people who followed through on theirs

According to the Pew Research Center, most Americans — 70%, in fact — don't make New Year's resolutions, and of those, 12% say it's because they're too hard to keep. But that leaves 30% of us who do go into the new year determined to unleash our better selves — the version of you that doesn't scroll on the phone for an hour in bed each night, eats lots of veggies and actually goes to the gym instead of just swanning around the house in lycra.

Sometimes it works out. Sometimes it doesn't. And what helps one person achieve their goals may not suit someone else. But as Jan. 1 draws nearer, Yahoo Life turned to five resolution-minded folks to see what they've learned along the way — and how their experiences might help others greeting Jan. 1 gain newfound determination.

Read on to see what has set them up for success.

Set an 'actionable' goal that you care about

Danielle Mini used to be a teacher, and she loves the natural points of the year that encourage people to reset. For her, this was always the beginning of the school year, her birthday and New Year’s Day. She always makes resolutions, and in 2024, Mini set two goals. One was to be more neighborly, and while this did inspire Mini to reach out to her neighbors more, it was difficult for her to judge her own success because it wasn’t a very concrete goal.

But Mini’s second goal was more specific. “I wasn’t going to buy any new clothes," the 55-year-old tells Yahoo Life, noting that reading about the fashion industry's environmental impact made her want to scale back. "Nothing at all. I said that if I did buy something it would be from a thrift store or a consignment shop."

In the end, Mini was able to stick to her goal. “It’s easier than you think,” she says. For 2025, Mini plans to do something else to help the environment: compost. She has also written a memoir and will work to find an agent in the new year. Because both goals are “quite actionable" and tied to her interests, she feels good about her ability to achieve them.

Make your resolutions fun

Every New Year’s Eve when Lillian Kay was a child, she and her mom would write down their favorite things that happened over the past year and put them in a box. Now that Kay is 29, this tradition has evolved into the pair spending the afternoon together on New Year’s Eve and setting their resolutions together.

Making those resolutions a reality hasn't always been easy. In 2023, they created a monthly action plan in an effort to be more organized and stay on track with their goals. That approach turned out to be too structured for their liking, and they felt bogged down by logistics. For 2024, mother and daughter decided to try something new.

“This year we did a 24 for ’24 list,” Kay tells Yahoo Life. Their resolutions were more of a bucket list that included a mix of fun activities and more serious goals. Kay started tennis lessons, read more nonfiction and ran a half-marathon. The only things she hasn’t crossed off her list yet are to take a pottery class and start physical therapy, both of which she plans to at least schedule before the year ends.

The list worked well for her. “I feel like we made it more fun while also including the more serious stuff, and [I] feel like we have been more successful this year than we have in previous years just by [bringing] a lighter element to it,” Kay says.

It worked so well that she and her mom plan to do it again — and are already preparing to make a “25 for '25” list.

Try a word of intention instead

Like Kay, 44-year-old Monica May likes the annual tradition of using New Year’s resolutions as a way to reset. But three years ago, she realized that traditional resolutions weren’t working for her. That year, she’d set the goal to do a half Ironman triathlon and spent several months training, only to injure her knee two weeks before the competition. Because her resolution was so specific, and she couldn’t complete it while injured, May realized that she needed to rethink how she set her yearly goals.

The next year, she instead set a word as her intention of the year. Resilience has been one; another year she settled on wander to offset the stagnant feeling she'd been experiencing. Using that as her guide, May set out to travel at least every other month and wound up visiting eight new places.

Wearable reminders have helped. “I had a necklace this year that was an intention necklace that had the word resilience,” May tells Yahoo Life. Last year, she had a bracelet that said wanderlust.

While others have found luck with more concrete, specific goals, May finds that taking a more fluid approach works for her. "[It] takes off pressure and sets a better success rate for me personally," she says. "It gives me more flexibility and less of a chance to be mad at myself for not doing something — or, conversely, laugh at myself for not remembering what [my resolution] was.”

For 2025, May’s word is going to be “shine.” She explains: “I held myself back a lot this past year and need to remember to veer toward action and let myself ‘shine.'"

Keep the momentum going

Personal development and leadership coach Jenna Zabrosky leads "Bridge to 25" sessions guiding clients through their resolutions. She also practices what she preaches when it comes to setting her own.

“Instead of thinking of a resolution as something that I need to resolve [or] something that I need to fix, I look at what worked well and what I want to celebrate and continue,” Zabrosky tells Yahoo Life.

To start this process, Zabrosky writes down celebrations and appreciations for herself to acknowledge what she did well over the past year. She also likes to take time to write down celebrations for the people in her community who helped her with those achievements. Then she writes a vision for where she’d like to be at the end of 2025. She imagines a scene from that time, describes it in detail and then extracts goals from that vision. For 2025, for example, she's looking to do things that increase stability in her life — and find the perfect place to live.

Focusing on a vision can "take you out of the current circumstances of your life to have a picture of what’s possible," Zabrosky says. If your vision entails you traveling the world, for example, you might make a resolution to save a certain amount of money to fund a big trip, or find a job that offers more vacation time.

Don’t pressure yourself to start in January

As a yoga teacher and wellness and life coach, Maria Kugler encourages her clients to remember to give themselves grace during the winter. While New Year’s resolutions can be motivating — and something Kugler likes to set for herself — embarking on new goals doesn't necessarily need to be tied to the start of the year. “I don’t like to rush into January as fast as I used to," Kugler tells Yahoo Life.

That was especially true last year, when she gave birth on Jan. 3. “I was in a baby cave for the first three months [of the year], but it gave me time at 2 in the morning to get out my Notes app and jot things down," Kugler says. All that journaling "really did set me up" to achieve her goals — including starting strength training and becoming board-certified as a wellness coach — once things settled down, however.

She encourages her clients to take some time before diving into their resolutions; the winter, she notes, can be a period of rest rather than rushing into, and eventually burning out on, goal-setting. “I find that the biggest barrier to having a chance to reset and reflect and really set themselves up for the next year is just slowing down and taking the time to reflect on the year prior,” she says.